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By Cindy Marie Jenkins in Kids' Media —

What the Pink Shirt Couple Can Teach Us About Break Ups

The Pink Shirt Couple is just one of the latest YouTube couples who broke up after rising to fame - while dating. But why does my kid care?

image of the Pink Shirt Couple sitting with smiles, and a broken pink heart between them
pink shirt couple

The Pink Shirt Couple is just one of the latest YouTube couples who broke up after years of creating content - and often rising to fame - while dating. BBC Culture interviewed me on their rise, but Alyssa Eckstein and Cayden Christianson were the perfect couple. With no noticeable conflicts, how can you answer your kid's questions about why they broke up?

BBC Culture logo
  1. Why do Couples Vlog Together?
  2. Why Do Kids Care So Much About YouTube and TikTok Couples?
  3. Why Did The Pink Shirt Couple Break Up?
  4. Why do People Break Up if They Seem So Happy?
  5. Online Relationships Usually Only Show the 'Highlights' Reel
  6. Relationships are Complicated.
  7. Conclusion

Why do Couples Vlog Together?

YouTube couples are one of the most popular niches on the platform and have a similar effect on TikTok. Many YouTubers in their twenties grew up experimenting with the different online platforms, sometimes for fun and often to fulfill a dream of being a popular content creator. When they meet others in the same online space, it makes sense to integrate someone you're dating into your own vlogs. After all, vlogging is about your life, and this person is now a part of your life.

They can retain their separate channels or collaborate on a couples channel, as with the Pink Shirt Couple. However, it can get tricky and confusing during perfectly normal times for a couple who keeps their relationship offline. Imagine you are fighting or even in a milder disagreement, but the cameras have to roll. You can't let your audience or sponsors know there's an issue unless relationship drama is part of your channel's appeal.

Why Do Kids Care So Much About YouTube and TikTok Couples?

YouTubers are their celebrities. Of course, when two favorite creators date and show their happiness online, their audience will be devastated if they break up. But the very nature of social media versus traditional television and movies means they take it more to heart.

Online couples have less of a barrier between their private lives and their audiences. Rather than a relationship being nothing more to the viewer than gossip at a distance, as it was for most of us, it often becomes the focus of a channel. The creators treat their followers like friends, with fewer barriers to personal and professional lives or no barriers. Whether or not this particular flavor of parasocial relationships is healthy for either side, this is the reality.

Why Did The Pink Shirt Couple Break Up?

We don't know exactly why. The closest they got to a reason is the age-old saying, "You can't change people, nor should you try." Considering neither is over 23, I'm impressed they already learned that lesson.

What will happen to their channel and 25 million subscribers? Eckstein offered it to Christianson, but he chose to start anew with a channel called "Pink Shirt Guy" (already at 178 million subscribers but no content except their break-up video), and Eckstein has since rebranded the "Pink Shirt Couple" channel to "Pink Shirt Girl."

Why do People Break Up if They Seem So Happy?

Although some of The Pink Shirt Couple's fans were suspicious when Christianson wasn't appearing in as many videos as normal, the couple kept their breakup under wraps until they were sure. This is a much healthier route than those who film their fights, create fights for drama, or even possibly fake a separation to increase their viewership (I'm talking to you, Ace Family). This may cause confusion if your child is invested in their relationship.

Online Relationships Usually Only Show the 'Highlights' Reel

You can remind your child that everything is intentionally filmed and, more often than not, edited to tell a specific story. Many mature online creators like Hank Green say, "Everything I show online is me, but all of me is not online," which is a much healthier approach.

Others overshare, and if their brand is upbeat, positive, or hinges on a romantic relationship, then sharing the difficulties of sharing a life with a loved one isn't what their viewers want to see. Heck, even a certified Marriage and Family Therapist and his wife/CEO of their company, Mended Light, are headed for a divorce, albeit what appears to be an incredibly civil and reasonable one (everyone should be so lucky!).

Relationships are Complicated.

This is a good life lesson to learn in general. Two separate people, especially meeting so young, working on an honest relationship with mutual respect and room for each person to grow - it's hard. We don't often see a popular couple's behind-the-scenes, in any honest way that I know of. When a couple is still working on their relationship or separated (an undeterminate timeline in which they typically see what it's like to live apart from their significant other), it makes sense not to share it.

It's also easy to end a story with the "happily ever after.' Still, long-term relationships require honesty, growth, respect, acceptance, compromise, more growth, and a highly ironic sense of humor (just me?). Sometimes, there isn't a specific reason or anyone to blame for a breakup, and sometimes there is. Celebrities, no matter how close we feel to them, do not owe us an explanation of their personal life.

Conclusion

The Pink Shirt Couple is an example of a healthy breakup you can show your children. They have talked it through and both admit some element of responsibility. So if your child wants to discuss why this adorable couple who seem so perfect for one another broke up, Eckenstein and Christianson are good role models to open this kind of discourse.

Read more: The MrBeast Cheating Controversy Shows Kids How Editing Tells the Story

Photo/Image Credit: Cindy Marie Jenkins, Pink Shirt Girl's YouTube Channel

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